Landcare is an Australian innovation which for over two decades has delivered multiple benefits for our environment, climate and food security.

We often overlook the individual contribution of work done on individual farms or by local rural, urban or indigenous Landcare groups because these do not attract the headlines of larger projects.

You sometimes hear it said that these individual contributions are “too small” to make any difference.

On the contrary, each action is important and it is the collective action by Landcare in its various forms that has made it one of the most significant social movements in this nation’s history delivering productive, environmental and social benefits.

Junior Landcare in our schools is helping children from urban communities to connect with our environment through understanding where their food comes from.

Children growing watermelons or sunflowers might not seem like a Landcare activity, but it is helping children make the first steps towards understanding the linkages between our environment, food, where it comes from and that they are interrelated.

Urban communities across the country have been doing remarkable work such as managing and enhancing public lands like creek banks and coastal dunes which has had significant water quality benefits, enhanced biodiversity and have made these better places to live.

Indigenous communities have made significant contributions through not only managing traditional lands, but in extending their traditional land management knowledge to the broader community across the country.

Our farmers have not only undertaken widespread revegetation and biodiversity works on their properties, but have also made significant environment and climate change contributions through practices such as minimum tillage and managing ground cover etc.